Pavel Mazheika’s remand detention extended for another month
Hrodna journalist and public figure Pavel Mazheika’s detention term ended on 31 January but was extended for another month. It has been six months since he is behind bars.
BAJ was informed by the family that the pre-trial detention center in Hrodna stopped accepting vitamins and medicines for all inmates, including Pavel. The size of political prisoner’s care packages is restricted to 30 kg per month, his correspondence is blocked now and then, and letters only reach the family.
The famous Hrodna journalist and public figure Pavel Mazheika was arrested and detained in Hrodna on 30 August and put into custody in an unknown criminal case. His lawyer has signed a pledge of secrecy.
Following his arrest, a website dedicated to his activities was set up.
In 2021, a criminal case was opened against Pavel Mazheika, artist Ales Pushkin, and “other persons” under part 3 of Art. 130 of the Criminal Code for “actions aimed at the rehabilitation and justification of Nazism.” The reason was the demonstration of a portrait of Yauhen Zhykhar, a Belarusian anti-Soviet activist, with a machine gun on his shoulder at a painting exhibition on 19 March 2021, the prosecutor’s office said. Mazheika was later released due to a “lack of grounds for detention.”
Support the journalist by letters and postcards at the address: 230023, Grodno, Turma‑1, ul. Kirova 1, Mazheika Pavel Ivanavich.